[This is a rough-draft excerpt from my forthcoming book concerning the history of modern Pagan and occult music. All work is copyright 2007 Jason Pitzl-Waters, and is posted under a Creative Commons License.]
It is hard to over-state the influence the Wicker Man soundtrack had on Pagan and occult-themed music. It not only became a reference point for Pagan artists, but a touchstone for a wide variety of musicians from seemingly disparate genres, entranced by the atmospherics and authenticity of the music. Dozens of covers of the traditional songs featured in the soundtrack can be found, and at least three different musical genres have found inspiration from the soundtrack. The film itself has been referenced by Heavy Metal acts, Brit-Pop artists, Punk icons, and Techno-dance troupes. To avoid listing them all, I'll point to some specific instances where the music touched artists important to the development of Pagan and occult music.
The Neofolk/post-Industrial scene, containing many bands with an emphasis on ancient paganism, the occult, and modern (Nordic) Heathenism, has long embraced the film. The legendary magazine "Compulsion" which has chronicled Neofolk since the 1990s, lists "The Wicker Man" as its favorite film. Current 93 member Michael Cashmore, along with singer Rose McDowall (most famous for her part in the pop-duo Strawberry Switchblade) recorded a version of "Willow's Song," which they renamed "The Wicker Man Song." The original of that same song, performed by Magnet, also appeared on a 4-disc compendium of the history of Neofolk entitled "Looking for Europe". Other tributes include a cover of "Summerisle" (a.k.a. "The Maypole Song") by Italian Neofolk group The Green Man, and an audio clip from the film's climatic finale which was played at the start of Blood Axis's first album.
While The Wicker Man's influence on the Goth and Darkwave genres isn't as explicit as it is in the Neofolk and Post-Industrial realm, there are some notable highlights. A cover of "Summerisle" ("The Maypole song") by the women's choral ensemble The Mediæval Bæbes (led by Katherine Blake from the Darkwave act Miranda Sex Garden), and the cover of "Willow's Song" by the Goth/Darkwave band Faith and The Muse both stand out. One could also make the case that several songs by the legendary Pagan-Goth band Inkubus Sukkubus owe something to the soundtrack's influence.
Finally, the largest impact of The Wicker Man's music must be on the "Wyrd Folk" scene (also called "Freak Folk" or "Psychedelic Folk"), a loose collection of bands and songwriters who take inspiration from British folklore and often incorporate mythic elements into their work. Many artists in this genre seem to consider the Wicker Man soundtrack a musical touchstone of sorts. This is seen on the Internet site "The Unbroken Circle", an advocacy site for Wyrd Folk, where the film is given highest praise:
"I believe the film to be the point where... the perceived realization of folk music as important in the social and magical context was made. It does not matter whether this realization was factual or just a perception, what matters is the transformation it created in the minds of many. Of course similar folk music was made before this film and afterwards without any link to the film. However it has become a kind of fulcrum from which many complementary areas have grown. It acts as the perfect achievement in wyrd-folk as the numerous cover versions and samples attest. In this it has become the reference point and comparison for much other music. By exploring without genre cliche or condemnation we have a relatively objective framework or template that facilitates intelligent consideration and a genuine evocation of the past."
This connection is made even more explicit in a July 2006 article for British newspaper The Guardian, where members of British Wyrd Folk groups Tunng and The Memory Band talk to Robin Hardy, director of The Wicker Man, about the soundtrack's influence:
"You can't avoid it, really. It's a fairly obvious reference point for a lot of the new music being made. Somehow it has become electronica plus folk equals The Wicker Man, and all kinds of disparate things have been joined together by this film. By mentioning The Wicker Man you evoke a traditional influence from a modern perspective. We look with modern eyes at these old traditions; we are observing from the outside. That's what the film does." - Adem (singer-songwriter), The Guardian, July 21, 2006
Perhaps the most telling statement on this soundtrack's ongoing influence on newer folk styles (Wyrd, Psychedelic, Neo) may have been made at the 30th annual Brosella Folk Festival in Brussels, where several members of prominent Flemish folk bands joined with Jacqueline 'Jacqui' McShee and Danny Thompson (from the classic British folk-rock band Pentangle) to form "The Wicker Band" and proceeded to perform songs from the movie before a midnight showing of the film. This moment shows how the soundtrack for an obscure British cult film helped fuse elements from the British folk revival, ancient Pagan traditions, and modern conceptions of each, into a new musical template - one that continues to blossom into the 21st century.
[This is a rough-draft excerpt from my forthcoming book concerning the history of modern Pagan and occult music. All work is copyright 2007 Jason Pitzl-Waters, and is posted under a Creative Commons License.]
"The music to THE WICKER MAN is quite extraordinary. It is probably the best music I've ever heard in a film, because each song is totally different from each other and they all sum up the atmosphere of the scenes perfectly. What Paul Giovanni achieved is quite amazing and absolutely beautiful" - Christopher Lee - July 2002
It is taken for granted today that when a film is released, the score or soundtrack is soon to follow, and sometimes is released before the film even appears in theaters. More often than not, the soundtrack is usually a tepid mix of incidental music with a handful of songs performed by popular pop artists. Rarely does a soundtrack strike a cultural nerve or influence other artists. So the history of this soundtrack's influence is unique. Performed by a folk band that existed only to record the songs, headed up by an American playwright and songwriter channeling the history of Celtic and British traditional folk songs, the popularity of the The Wicker Man's soundtrack is unusual. It first appeared in 1997 as a dub from the film's score that some claim was a bootleg; the professional-quality stereo release didn't hit the shelves until 2002. For a film's soundtrack to become so popular even while it could only be experienced within the film, speaks to how well-executed and integral music was to the movie.
Paul Giovanni, the American songwriter tapped to head up the soundtrack, along with his assistant Gary Carpenter (a graduate of the Royal College of Music), intensively researched the history of British and Celtic folk songs and endeavored to find the most archaic versions of songs possible, to make the island's revived paganism seem realistic and natural. The pair would often dig through archives to find the oldest lyrics to a particular tune; a good example would be "Sumer is A Cumen In", the medieval song welcoming the coming of the sun, sung at the end of the film. The six part canon was written in the 13th century, and is the only known six-part music written before the 15th century:
Sumer is a comin' in Loudly sing cuckoo Grows the seed and blows the mead and springs the wood anew Sing cuckoo!
The lyrics for this particular song were adapted by Peter Shaffer (who was writing the pagan-tinged play "Equus" at the time), the brother of Anthony Shaffer, who wrote the Wicker Man screenplay. Most of the other songs in the film are traditional British folk songs, including "Miri It Is", "The Landlord's Daughter", and "Gently Johnny". In addition, Giovanni borrowed from the 18th century Scottish poet and songwriter Robert Burns for the songs "Corn Rigs" and "Willow's Song". The association of these mostly Christian-penned songs with ancient British paganism can be tied to Cecil Sharp and earlier folklorists, who felt that folk-songs and related practices like Morris and sword dances (also featured in the film) were part of a "cultural inheritance" winding back through the ages to the European pagan pasts.
The soundtrack was performed by a band called Magnet (originally Lodestone, until it was found that another band had already claimed that title), primarily made up of college students and members of the folk-rock band Hocket. This core group of musicians, along with some cast members and friends, recorded the soundtrack in just six weeks, as time and money were in short supply for the making of the film. Giovanni, Carpenter, and some of the other key musicians also traveled to Scotland to assist in the filming. Giovanni himself sang "Gently Johnny," which became one of the most-loved pieces in the film.
When appreciated in context, the music's melancholy, and at times playful, tone elevates the picture to something greater than the sum of its plots. It is not hard to imagine this film being lost to obscurity if it weren't for the depth of its faux-pagan society; the viewer easily believes that these are songs real villagers sing, and that the rituals performed in the film might be as everyday as an Easter or Mayday celebration. This familiar quality turns these pagan "villains" into real people, ordinary people who truly believe that their actions are natural and correct. Thus when Sgt. Howie lands on the island, his repressive Anglican-Catholic worldview doesn't appear to encounter a tawdry occult ritual ready to be overturned by the Law, but instead a healthy and tightly-knit community determined to protect its way of life.
After the filming, Magnet as an entity dissolved, and the band members went their separate ways. Paul Giovanni went back to New York, where he continued his career in theater; he is well known for his play "The Crucifer of Blood" written shortly before his untimely demise in 1990 from an AIDS-related illness. Gary Carpenter went on to compose several operas and musicals, and is now Senior Lecturer at the Royal Academy of Music in London. Other band members who went on to musical prominence include fiddle player Ian Cutler, composer Peter Brewis, and musician Michael Cole, who went on to become an actor in several television and movie roles.
